Steely Simunovic making his mark

Jozo Sumunovic was a few finer details away from leaving Celtic in the summer, but there was unfinished business when his move to Torino fell through.

Simunovic, who was rated highly by his previous club Dinamo Zagreb, had been plagued with injury after injury when he first joined the Hoops. Having only featured 17 times last season for Celtic, Simunovic looked to be heading out of Paradise, but a sudden change of fortunes has resulted in the centre-back having a run the first-team.

After coming back from any long-term injury, it is key not to rush a player back into action. With Brendan Rodgers recruiting Kolo Toure in the summer and Eric Sviatchenko being the mainstay centre-back, Simunovic was on the periphery of the Celtic squad.

However, when called upon this season, the Croatian looks to be the defender that everyone rated highly before moving to Celtic. In the eight matches he has played this season for the Hoops, Simunovic has been part of a defence, which has kept six clean sheets in the matches he has featured in.

If you take out the wonder strike from Souleymane Coulibaly in Celtic’s 6-1 thrashing against Kilmarnock and his late appearance in the 2-2 draw away to Inverness, then Simunovic has been part of a rock-solid defence which has stopped leaking cheap goals.

In the early part of the season, the Hoops struggled for clean sheets but since Simunovic came into the side, he has brought an air of calmness and stability to what was a fragile defence. What’s very impressive though, is the Croatian’s physicality as well has his no-nonsense defending.

In the last few seasons, Celtic have been crying out for a defender who can not only defend resolutely but have someone who is willing to put in a challenge and make the opposition fearful when they come up against him.

In particular, in the match against Rangers at Hampden Park, he was outstanding from first minute to last. Simunovic won every aerial battle,  every 50/50 challenge and even blocked a certain goal when Jason Holt’s shot smashed off him. His performance was even more impressive, when you consider the pressure cooker atmosphere the match was played in.

At the age of 22, his positioning and overall defensive play is already at a good level. With time and more experience, Simunovic will become another top talent for the Hoops but Rodgers will aim to help him on other attributes that he’s yet to develop. For example, his passing and decision-making at times can be risky, but more often than not it’s paid dividend for Celtic this season.

There is no reason why he can’t become the number one centre-back at Celtic in the coming years given what we have seen this season. The Croation may have been a regular recently in domestic competition but he will want to challenge himself in Europe either this campaign if he’s called upon or in future campaigns.

The biggest factor in all of this is that while Simunovic has all the talent in the world, he must stay injury-free and battle his fitness problems to play regular first-team football. Working his way back from a serious knee injury tat required surgery has limited him to one game a week since he came back, a decision that Rodgers wisely made on advice from medical experts at Celtic.

When these issues are fully recovered from, there is no reason why Simunovic can’t become one of the best centre-backs in recent times at Celtic.